Crime and travel author Carl Russo at Book Passage

San Francisco author Carl Russo will read from his new book, The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide, at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Saturday, July 12, at 7 p.m. Complimentary Sicilian wine will be served during a discussion about the making of this controversial work. The event is presented by Left Coast Writers.

Written for tourists and arm-chair travelers alike, The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide (Strategic Media Books, $18.95) is a geographical history of the Cosa Nostra on the Italian island of Sicily, the picturesque birthplace of organized crime. 

Since 2006, Russo has photographed Mafia landmarks in Sicily: where the murders happened, where the godfathers lived, and where their victims are buried. From the sunbaked fishing villages of the Mediterranean to the darkest alleys of Palermo, western Sicily is the exotic backdrop for more than 100 tales of murder and mayhem, packed with 202 photographs of the actual locations.

“Mafia landmarks are found everywhere in Sicily, an unfortunate byproduct of the island’s tragic history,” says Russo. “By mapping theses strange sites and telling the amazing stories behind them, I want to show readers that the Mafia is not a romantic relic of the past.”

The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide will be available at Book Passage for signing. For more information, visit Book Passage or the Press Room at MafiaExposed.com. To grab a JPEG of the book’s cover for your news outlet, go here.

WHEN: Saturday, July 12, 2014, at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA. (415) 927-0960
COST: Free

Carl Russo is a San Francisco author who has written for the Oakland Tribune, Indiewire and other publications. He was a radio producer and DJ at KUSF-FM, San Francisco, for more than a decade. He fell in love with Sicily on his first trip to the island in 1999 and has returned many times since. In 2010, he started a blog, MafiaExposed.com, which became the basis for his book.

Strategic Media Books is an independent US publisher of true crime books, specializing in gangster profiles and regional scenes. Visit www.StrategicMediaBooks.com.